Saturday, October 27, 2012

Corporate
Info:
I'd never heard of Portland, Oregon's Stirs the Soul until near the
end of my visit to Seattle's annual Northwest Chocolate Festival. (I
was only able to stay a few hours, so I expect to discuss the
festival in related posts rather than on its own.) By that point my
head was swimming: I'd seen countless thin, flat, brown rectangles
and tasted many smooth, complex chocolates that were mostly running
together in my mind, though I hadn't yet been blown away by anything
and was actually considering going home with nothing.

Near
the back of the convention floor I stopped at Stirs the Soul's
undeniably hippie booth and figured it was another company that put
ideology over quality chocolate...and then I had my first surprise of
the afternoon. Daren Hayes comes off as a chatty, earthy-crunchy
hippie, a self-taught chocolate maker (albeit one with a culinary
degree) who had the good sense to hire a chocolatier or two, and
they're doing interesting work. I actually liked (though not loved)
the bars, which are made using organic, raw cacao, with alternative
sweetners (coconut palm sugar, date sugar, agave, honey) and fairly
interesting flavors like hemp and maitake mushroom, spiced chai, and
orange goji. The truffles I took home aren't available on the
website, but they're what blew me away, and if you're interested in
the bars and other confections, you can buy them online or at one of
these natural food stores.

Today's
Confection: Daren
had two “Pleasures” available for tasting, the Salted Chocolate
and another (I think Turkish coffee, which I remember also being
excellent); I overheard him saying something about them being a sort
of cross between a caramel and a truffle. There's no label on the
little cardboard boxes he had for sale, so I asked him for the
ingredients and he rattled off what I listed above, noting that there
might be one or two more that he couldn't remember. I've tasted raw
chocolate in the past and used all three of the coconut ingredients
he mentioned, and while I like them, I expected something fairly oily
and harsh. Instead I ended up buying a box of four.

Appearance:
Imperfect
squares, with a very dark coating and a light, haphazard sprinkling
of salt crystals and what I assume to be crushed cocoa nibs.

Smell:
Not strong, but earthy, smoky, and dark.

Taste:
Texture is pliable outside, very soft and slightly chewy inside,
which must be the “caramel” in the caramel-truffle cross. Flavor
is intense: complex, moody, dark, smoky, roasted—but not especially
bitter or sour. These remind me of strong coffee and the scent of pot
smoke (I'll only admit to having attended concerts as a teenager, and
eventually learning what I was smelling around me), with the salt
crystals majorly punching up the flavor halfway through chewing. I have no
idea what fine European-style chocolatiers would think, as the
texture, intensity, and smokiness are a long way from many
super-creamy, mild truffles and sweet, buttery caramels, but I could
eat one of these daily and always feel impressed and satisfied. I
wish I had more.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Ingredients:
I lost the label for this (it's a sticker on the back), but the Taza
product contains just organic cocoa beans, organic sugar, salt, and
pepper, and is 55% cacao.

Corporate
Info: (Copied from 10/6/12)
I've had very mixed results with Trader Joe's chocolate, enough that
I rarely review it. The quirky-gourmet company is hit or miss anyway,
with some products being regular purchases for years, some becoming
favorites and then disappearing from shelves, and some straight up
disappointing. There isn't much to say aside from a fun fact: The
US's beloved Trader Joe's is ownedby Germany'sALDI, which operates
discount supermarkets all over Europe—and that explains why we saw
packages of dried fruit and nuts labeled Trader Joe's in an ALDI in
Osnabrück.

This
Bar: (Altered from 10/13/12)
Trader Joe's is known for offering store brand goods that are
possibly lower-cost, identical products made by a name brand
manufacturer and sold in very similar packaging that makes the
connection even more obvious. Today's stone-ground cacao discs look
mighty familiar, don't they? Well, they're as close as you can come
(without being 100% positive) to Taza's two-to-a-package,
spoke-scored, stone-ground Salt and Pepper Chocolate Mexicano, which
I actually haven't reviewed here, though I can't compare the
ingredients as I write this (see above). TJ's is only $3.99, while
Taza's is $4.50 on its website and $5-6 in stores around my city. I
don't have the Taza product here, but I can review TJ's discs alone.
So how are they?

Appearance:
This actually has a slightly darker, redder undertone than last
week's 70% bar, despite being lower cacao (I think). Again, it's
glossy with a grainy cross-section, due to the stone-ground cacao and
sugar crystals.

Smell:
Rich, dark, and a little sweet,
with the black pepper adding a spiciness that doesn't stand out but
rather makes the chocolate smell more complex.

Taste:
Again, the texture is gritty,
reflecting both the cacao and the sugar. The first flavors that hit
me are salty-savory and sweet, not chocolatey, which is interesting.
The salt and pepper don't taste strongly salty or peppery but rather
contribute to an overall savory flavor, with the flavor-enhancing
properties of salt and the slow burn of pepper. The sweetness stands
out, probably because of the lower cacao content (I think) as well as
the separate sugar crystals, which makes it a little too sweet for me
but does provide a good counterpoint to the savoriness of the salt
and pepper. Personally I'd like to taste this spice blend in 70%
cacao, but it works if you like more sugar in your chocolate.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Corporate
Info: (Copied from 10/6/12)
I've had very mixed results with Trader Joe's chocolate, enough that
I rarely review it. The quirky-gourmet company is hit or miss anyway,
with some products being regular purchases for years, some becoming
favorites and then disappearing from shelves, and some straight up
disappointing. There isn't much to say aside from a fun fact: The
US's beloved Trader Joe's is ownedby Germany'sALDI, which operates
discount supermarkets all over Europe—and that explains why we saw
packages of dried fruit and nuts labeled Trader Joe's in an ALDI in
Osnabrück.

This
Bar:Trader Joe's is known for
offering store brand goods that are possibly lower-cost, identical
products made by a name brand manufacturer and sold in very similar
packaging that makes the connection even more obvious. Today's
stone-ground, 70% cacao discs look mighty familiar, don't they? Well,
they're as close as you can come (without being 100% positive) to
Taza's two-to-a-package, spoke-scored, stone-ground 70% Cacao Puro Chocolate Mexicano, which I haven't reviewed here. The ingredients
are practically the same (TJ's lists “cocoa nibs” to Taza's
website's “roasted cacao beans”), but TJ's is only $3.99, while
Taza's is $4.50 on its website and $5-6 in stores around my city.
Unfortunately I don't have the Taza product here, but I can review
TJ's discs alone. So how are they?

Appearance:
Medium brown with yellow
undertones. Glossy on the surface but grainy (i.e. stone-ground) in
cross-section, with visible sugar crystals.

Taste:
Texture is gritty and fudgy. Flavor isn't especially dark, but has a
light spiciness, like nutmeg and ginger—that's the dried, “brown”
smell I was getting. Slightly sour, little bitterness. The flavor's
mild complexity and texture's variation makes this easy to keep
eating.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Corporate
Info: I've had very mixed results with Trader Joe's chocolate, enough that I rarely review it.
The quirky-gourmet company is hit or miss anyway, with some products
being regular purchases for years, some becoming favorites and then
disappearing from shelves, and some straight up disappointing. There
isn't much to say aside from a fun fact: The US's beloved Trader
Joe's is ownedby Germany'sALDI, which operates discount
supermarkets all over Europe—and that explains why we saw packages
of dried fruit and nuts labeled Trader Joe's in an ALDI in Osnabrück.

This
Bar: Just a random 72% cacao
bar with no special selling points other than a small “Imported
from Belgium.” It's worth noting that, unlike most chocolate bars I
review, this one lists cocoa powder in the ingredients. I wonder what
that will do to the flavor, if anything?

Appearance:
Small and blocky, in a very medium brown with the normal level of
gloss.

Smell:
Roasted, bitter, kind of harsh.

Taste:
Texture is waxy, melting into thick and somewhat chalky, the latter
of which I expect has to do with the cocoa powder. Flavor is intense
and bitter, with undertones of butter and nuts. The bitterness
actually has some complexity, so even though it's a little harsh it's
not totally all over the place and doesn't have super-off-putting
edges, so honestly it's not all that bad, but it's amazing the
difference between this 72% bar and many others with similar levels
of cacao. Cocoa powder wouldn't be my first choice of chocolate bar
ingredients, and I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this again, but
if you relish bitterness it's worth a shot.

Conclusion:
Trader Joe's 72% Cacao Dark
Chocolate is strong and bitter, but passable if you like that sort of
thing.

Welcome to Dark Chocolate Diary! I'm Molly D, and I review dark chocolate bars and confections. I like small companies, fair trade, and organics. I like bars that aren't too sweet and flavorings I can really taste. I like to use the word "balance." And I'll try anything once.